medieval-atlas/economic-development/308

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Taxation of burghs Unlike the sheriffdoms and dioceses, the changing circumstances have been included in the sheriffdom and diocesan returns in other of the burghs cannot be gauged from the taxation record (but see years. Apart from Lanark, which had inherited Roxburgh's fair as a above, Burgh farms). The tax returns of the 1360s and 1370s thereresult of the English occupation, only those burghs with substantial fore provide a unique insight into the relative wealth and size of the overseas trade were of much consequence. burghs. They confirm the overwhelming predominance and number Comparison between the tax returns and the 1366 assess of the east-coast burghs. Other evidence may indicate that even the ments provides a rough indication of the distribution of income greatest burghs were very small, but they were nonetheless powerthroughout Scottish society, as shown in the two pie charts below. ful. The townsfolk of Edinburgh were as wealthy as all the barons, The peasantry contributed 54% of the total and the burghs 16% . clergy and peasantry of Midlothian combined; while those ofAberThe division between the clergy and lay freeholders is less clear. deen possessed about a third of the income of their rural hinterland. Assuming that the average division of income between freeholders But these were exceptions: most of the burghs were very poor and and tenants was the same, the clergy contributed about 12% of the were, presumably, minute; many contributed only in 1366 and may total (8.5% from benefices) and lay freeholders about 18%. o Banff ., Aberdeen "" reInverbervle B~Chi: run = Montrose ;: e Forfar ; ~~ rbroath . [] = ~ .StAndrews .: m' 11 Auchterarder ~O. :..:. up. a r . Tax returns 1365 to 1373 ~~ ~~; Crall (highest returns from each source) ~~ Siirling Ill. =Klrkcaldy ;: • 1'!"3 Dunfermline oJ = ~N rth B . k ;; Ii.:.3 Kinghorn/"i 0 erwlc .: H .lnverkei~~L~ = unbar m ffiI ~'. Llnllthgow. .. • ..Nungate Edlnburoh-e '. GIasgow Canonaate = Haddlngton~:: 'lill ~;; '"[;] ;~. Musselburgh Rutherglen H ~~. :: ::: = ;: Lanark. ~1 ~ @Lauder 11 ·Peebles .' Dumfries® Approximate annual taxed 10 income (excluding crown income), 1366 assessments and 1365 to 1373 returns Percentage of total burgh income . Taxed burgh income 1366 to 1373 ASt 308

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